Eschscholzia parishii

Parish's poppy; gold poppy

Family: Papaveraceae · Type: annual · Native

Parish's poppy is a California native annual found in southern Desert Mountains and Desert Sonoran regions in desert washes, slopes, and hillsides at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from February to May, this poppy produces bright yellow or occasionally orange-yellow flowers 8 to 25 millimeters long with nodding buds that have distinctively long-pointed tips. Growing 5 to 35 centimeters tall with an erect habit, the plant has a glabrous bright to yellow-green stem that is occasionally glaucous. Its leaves are bright to yellow-green with distal cauline leaves featuring 3 to 5 narrow segments that have acute to acuminate tips. The seed is generally round, 1 to 1.4 millimeters wide, with a distinctive net-ridged surface in tan to brown coloration.

Habitat: Desert washes, slopes, hillsides

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: s DMoj, DSon

California counties: San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego, Riverside, Inyo, San Francisco, Kern, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.